Actually the file to list all posts of any category and date is the index.php. You just write ‘the loop’ as told on codex.

So if you changed your index.php to make it as a fancy page and not the post list only, now you’re trying to create another page to do that for you.

So, if you follow me, you’re doing this the wrong way. What you should do is to create a separate page and assign it as the home page of your blog. It would then free the index.php file for you to use it as the blog list, as it is by default.